Family Friendly

            Thought the Queen: Heavens it’s chilly. If I’m so bloody divine, why can’t I control the weather for my own Diamond Jubilee River Pageant? I do suppose that Oxo, Spick, and Span are enjoying frolicking in the Palace garden. They do like to like to get muddy in the rain; Silly dogs. The Queen stiffened as she sauntered toward the front of the barge, as Prince Phillip waddled closely behind. “At least no one can hear you from here,” she mumbled to her husband.

            “What’s that, my love?” he asked earnestly.

“Nothing dearest. ...Dreadful weather.”

“Mmm. Yes, dreadful.”

If one wanted to honor 60 odd-years of my reign, one would let me go on holiday to Hawai’i again. Having me endure four hours of the Thames’ stench in view of all these obsequious commoners—like it’s my funeral wake—it’s more like they’re testing how much longer I can take this. I should have abdicated. “Remember Hawai’i, Phillip dear?

“Of course, my love! Splendid country. Except for all those Pakis.”

“They’re Polynesian, dear.”

“Whatever.”

 Elizabeth had decided that complaining would not make today any more pleasant; and that Phillip was an idiot; As the boat approached the banks of Battersea Park, she did her wave; She turned to the left; She did her wave again; And tried her very best to crack a smile—until she heard Camilla’s voice.

“Your majesty!” she ingratiated. “Have you lost weight?”

“No, Camilla. I’m 85,” she pronounced, irritated. “I’ve given up on my figure, and by the looks of it, so have you dear.”

Bite your tongue, thought Camilla. She forced a nervous giggle. “You are too much, your Majesty.” Just a few more months; Just a few more months…. Of course, Camilla had been telling herself that for the past 10 years. But then again, she pondered, it worked with Diana. God, it’s frigid; I wonder if she knows that I’ve been trying to kill her. (Camilla had dropped cyanide into Her Majesty’s tea when they visited Wales earlier that week. She still felt sorry about the poor butler who tasted it first.)

Having shown herself to the river banks from every angle of the barge, Princess Kate returned to the royal box. Camera whore, thought Camilla. Diana wannabe, pondered the Queen.

Kate sensed tension, but no more than usual. She always suspected that neither Camilla nor the Queen approved of her lifestyle; But she marched on; She was a soldier; The fame was worth it. She has six million friends on Facebook, and her YouTube channel had one million subscribers. “What a splendid day!” she Tweeted on her rhinestoned iPhone before the Queen.

“Must you click away right now, my sweet,” asked Her Majesty.

“Oh my, sincerest apologies, mum,” Kate shrieked.

The old bag would tweet too, if she ever knew what the internet was, Kate pondered. Although I give Phillip credit; He learned how to IM his friends in the BNP. …I wonder if bright red was the way to go today. Perhaps neon yellow would have been more noticeable.

When I was first told to write a passage in the style of Virginia Woolfe, I decided to confront a theme that was present in nearly every book we’ve read besides Mrs. Dalloway. The theme of women against women is one we’ve discussed and read about many times.

The 3 characters in my narrative are all exaggerated characters. They are stereotypes in the sense that they are what we believe most royals are, snobby and pretentious. They represent not only what we think of royals, but also what women think of each other.

In The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf says that, “beauty thinking urges women to approach each other as possible adversaries until they know they are friends”, which is exactly what the women in my narrative are doing (Wolf 75).

Naomi Wolf goes on to describe the relationship between women who are strangers, she says that “Though women have networks of intimate friends, the myth, and women’s conditions until recently, have kept women from learning how to do something that makes all male social change possible: How to identify with unknown other women in a way that ins not personal.” (Wolf 75).

Mary Wollstonecraft also believes that women are one of the major factors constricting women’s rights. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman she says, “I do not wish them (women) to have power over men; but over themselves.”(Wollstonecraft 70).

This theme isn’t limited to the non-fiction books we’ve read this year. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Aunts train Handmaids for their jobs. "The Aunts are allowed to read and write." Whereas all handmaids must be kept away from the sin that is literacy (Atwood 100).

            Women holding women back is a serious issue that many of the authors we’ve read this year are concerned about. However, it is one that needs to be addressed on a wider scale in order to educate more people on the topic.

           

Clarissa

            After finishing Mrs. Dalloway, it took me a while to decide whether I really liked the book or not. The writing style was hard to follow, and it generally just wasn’t the type of book I normally choose to read. The books running themes and change in perspective was what really convinced me that I liked it more then I disliked it.

            One of my favorite aspects of the book is the focus on people’s personalities, thoughts, human nature, and the purpose of existence in general.  One of the most intriguing aspects of the book is Clarissa’s view of the world relative to the way she acts. She thinks,

“We are a doomed race, chained to a sinking ship…as the whole thing is a bad joke let us… mitigate the suffering of our fellow prisoners…decorate the dungeon…be as decent as we possibly can” (Woolf 68)

If you ask me, she truly shows a frame of mind that is both carefree and cynical. Each of the characters in the book is truly unique. She shifts her writing style as she switches characters. To me, this was one of the most enjoyable traits of the book and is one of the main reasons I enjoyed it.

            Her writing is tinted with philosophical questions and perhaps meaning, something which I don’t normally find in the literature I read regularly. She constantly addresses aspects of life and asks questions about the nature of the universe. For example, when Clarissa lies down in her bed, Woolf narrates, “She would lie down…But—but—why did she suddenly feel, for no reason that she could discover, desperately unhappy” (Woolf 106). The question of ‘why’ is constantly asked, but is never really answered, which goes well with the morbid truth of the world that we are shown through each individual perspective.

            A third theme that I found interesting was the passage of time; something that Clarissa feels is escaping her grasp and leading to her inevitable death. This focus on time is evident when Clarissa describes a cloud crossing the sun, “silence falls on London; and falls on the mind. Effort ceases. Time flaps on the mast. There we stop; there we stand. Rigid, the skeleton of habit alone upholds the human frame” (Woolf 42). She also tries to continually cheer herself up. She Sais that she isn’t as old as she believes she is, saying things like, “she had just broken her fifty-second year. Months and months of it were still untouched. June, July, August!” (Woolf 31).

            Clarissa’s life and personal philosophies contradict. She hosts countless parties, decorates with bright flowers, feigning joy in a watchful and judgmental society. Her atheism and cynicism contrast greatly with her lifestyle. She lives normally with her husband in London and should have no reason to question the world or experience a depression of any sort, but then again it might just be her nature.

            

Naomi Wolf and Mary Wollstonecraft

Naomi Wolfe and Mary Wollstonecraft live in very different time periods. One lives in a time before the female rights movements of the 20^th century and the other after both. They both demand the education of women, their liberty from both themselves and the expectations put towards them in society. Although living in different time periods I’m sure that both women would’ve gotten along famously if they ever met. They both agree on so many subjects relating to women’s rights that I felt it necessary to write about it.

Wollstonecraft talks about society’s effect on women when she says in her book that women are, “Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's scepter, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.” (Wollstonecraft 71). According to Wollstonecraft, British women consider beauty above all else in society, as they treat it as their way of getting ahead in life. Although not the focus of women’s lives in our day and age, women’s pursuit of beauty is still an issue. Wolf says that, “Many are ashamed to admit that such trivial concerns—to do with physical appearance, bodies, faces, hair, clothes—matter so much.” (Wolf 9).

Their views on beauty’s role in women’s lives do seem parallel but what is more outstanding is their opinion on how we can move onward and progress the rights of women. Both of them believe in a system of education that promotes women as equals to men and counters the negativity directed at women. Wollstonecraft says that, ”Till women are more rationally educated, the progress in human virtue and improvement in knowledge must receive continual checks.” (Wollstonecraft 84). Where Wollstonecraft talks of education, Wolfe talks about a change in mentality,

“A woman wins by giving herself and other women permission—to eat; to be sexual; to age; to wear overalls, a paste tiara, a Balenciaga gown, a secondhand opera cloak, or combat boots; to cover up or to go practically naked; to do whatever we choose in following—or ignoring—our own aesthetic.” (Wolf 290)

            They are two authors that have never met and never will. They’ve both impacted the people around them and both are heavy contributors to the women’s rights movement of the 70’s and 80’s.

So I asked some dudes

If your penis could wear anything, what would it wear?

“purple”

“a scuba diving outfit”

“a wig”

“a winter jacket”

“a leather vest”

“thick rimmed glasses and a bandana”

If your penis could speak what would it say?

“Hi, nice to meet you”

“baby baby”

“tally ho”

“Hello, nice to see you”

“floozle”

“hello”

            I conducted these interviews with some of my friends in the same way that it was done in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. I did this to try and gauge the differences between the views women and men have on their genitalia.

I’ve only given a few of my total interview answers. The general gist of what I ended up with was a trend of confidence that I didn’t see in The Vagina Monologues.

            In the book, Eve Ensler talks about man elevating the penis above the vagina, “Hate to see a woman having pleasure, particularly sexual pleasure…they wouldn’t be able to stand it. Seeing all those energized, not taking shit, hot, happy vaginas” (Ensler 72).

            We are constantly shown examples of men controlling women sexually, in her book, Ensler talks about the issue of genital mutilation,

“Genital mutilation has been inflicted on 80 to 100 million girls and young women. In countries where it is practiced, mostly African, about 2 million youngsters a year can expect the knife—or the razor or a glass shard—to cut their clitoris or remove It altogether, to have part or all of the labia…sewn together with catgut or thorns” (Ensler 67).

            This issue, although terrible has been slowly losing popularity. Thanks to books like this and other associations, people are being educated on what’s wrong with genital mutilation and are being given other ways to culturally represent coming of age. “In some places, Africans seem to have been quietly putting an end to the tradition of genital cutting” says Ensler, who is all to aware of the unjust nature of those acts (Ensler 91).

            The clitoris contains twice as many nerve fibers as the penis, and I am reminded short narrative we read earlier in the year, If Men Could Menstruate.  If men had a body part as sensitive as a clitoris, it would be championed, praised, talked about, and written about infinitely more then the women’s clitoris is in our day and age.

The Abuse of Women

Recently, our class was shown a documentary on one organization’s charitable work in the Democratic Republic of Congo that helps women that have been raped and abused express themselves and have a safe haven. City of Joy has also been working with other charitable organizations such as V-Day and Unicef to fund the project. After the video I was taken aback by how powerful the message was. The women’s stories struck me and I was shown how big of an issue the abuse of women has become, especially in third world countries.

This video brought out some of the topics discussed in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues to mind. So much of what we read about in The Vagina Monologues is both terrifying and true. It’s happening in both first and third world countries. Eve Ensler discusses the numbers of women being raped in her book when she says,

“When I returned to New York after my first trip, I was in a state of outrage. Outraged that 20,000 to 70,000 women were being raped in the middle of Europe in 1993, as a systematic tactic of war, and no one was doing anything to stop it. I couldn’t unerstand it. A friend asked me why I was surprised. She said that over 500,000 women were raped every year in this country, an in theory we were not at war. “ (Ensler 60).

There’s very little that I more heartbreaking then just reading those numbers. Chapters in Ensler’s book such as ‘My Vagina Was My Village’ and ‘The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could” really show the mental and emotional trauma that comes as a result of abuse or rape. There’s a specific type of pain that goes with rape and I think the whole class was exposed to that when watching the video. We’re more educated about it, but more people still need to learn about how much of an issue rape and abuse of women are. 

The Domination of Women

The domination of women

            In all of the books we’ve read this year, their has been one justifiable assertion, that women are not equal to men because men do not permit them to become equals. Rape, marketing, marriage, and even education are all areas that we are shown in which the rights of women in relation to men are discussed.

            Rape is defined as “the crime, committed by a man, of forcing another person to have sexual intercourse with him without their consent and against their will, esp. by the threat or use of violence against them.”, notice how it specifically refers to men as the people who are committing the crime (Oxford English Dictionary). In Jasmine, when Jasmine reaches America she is violently raped by ‘half-face’, who says to her, “I got one use for you, and you got no use for me, and you know what? That don’t bother me at all,” which further emphasizes how she is dominated by men (Mukherjee 113). This rape is a precursor to the dependence that Jasmine develops with every man she becomes romantically involved with. Even in India, she was so dependent on Prakash that when he was killed she made a promise to herself and her deceased partner that she would commit suicide to honor him. Throughout her life, Jasmine is controlled and dependant on the men in her life.

            In The Beauty Myth the topic of marketing is discussed over and over again. This is one of the most interesting aspects of the entire book. What I found the most interesting was that the marketing’s brainwashing of women has made it so that, “dieting is the essence of contemporary femininity.” (Wolf 200). When surveyed women, “the Austin (Texas) Stress clinic found, ‘dieting concern’ was strongly related to ‘positive feminine traits’ for men, food restraint was related to ‘socially undesirable femininity.’”(Wolf 200). This was one of the most interesting things I had ever read. This meant that men weren’t the one pressuring women into eating disorders, but rather the marketing industry. Pushing dieting products is much easier when your audience believes it’s a positive feminine trait.

            In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Walstonecraft claims that women are educated to be dependent on another and to be weaker and gentler. She questions the system and says that, “Should it be proved that woman is naturally weaker than man, from whence does it follow that it is natural for her to labor to become still weaker than nature intended her to be?” (Walstonecraft 85)

            In The Handmaid’s Tale we’re shown a world where women’s rights are taken away. They are no longer allowed to read or write, to have their own jobs, or to be independent of a man. This is most evident when Offred holds the commander’s pen, “The pen between my fingers is sensuous, alive almost, I can feel its power, the power of the words it contains.”(Atwood 186). Her loss of rights has caused Offred to feel something just by holding a pen.

            This running theme of ‘the domination of women’ by men is one of the most obvious and common themes in the books we’ve read this year. It’s discussed or described in the literature we’ve been reading.

Society vs. Individuality

Have you ever noticed how impossible it is to find a place in central London where you can truly find yourself alone? Society can sometimes feel like overbearing, watching everything you do at all times, and holding certain expectations for every single person. This isn’t exclusive to modern times. Clarissa Dalloway experiences this in 1925 in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Clarissa is extremely self-conscious. Her life is public; she is under constant pressure to always be well composed and normal. Her normal behavior is one that she had to formulate for herself. In our day and age, we get an idea of what ‘normal’ behavior is through television and marketing, but Clarissa’s comes from public outings.

This fake normality that women have to hold in Clarissa’s time is both unhealthy and a promoter of negative feelings towards oneself. People are not taught to admire themselves, but rather to judge themselves every time they do something that doesn’t fit society. The fake nature of Clarissa’s also leads to some self-hatred where Clarissa feels like a, “frivolous [and] empty-minded; a mere silly chatterbox” (Woolfe 37). No one is allowed to really be himself or herself, which leads to a whole mess of negative feelings.

Society’s watchful eye and expectations not only hurt women in the book, but also men. Peter Walsh has his own struggles with keeping up these expectations. His struggles really come to life when he’s in Trafalgar square and he gets a feeling of indifference when he realizes that nobody there knows who he is and simply cannot judge him. He can live like “an unguarded flame, bow and bend” to what he really wants in life (Woolfe 45).

Society must stop expecting individuals to be satisfied with a life of normalcy, but rather a life that is true to oneself.

            

Asma II

            One blog post was simply not enough to properly convey all the info I gained from when I interviewed Asma. Asma is the exact opposite of how most Middle Eastern women her age act. My grandmother for example has been asking me and my brothers when we’re going to get married since we were 13 whereas Asma’s been warning us to take very good care of any girls we’re in a relationship with, otherwise she’ll, “box our heads in.”

            She’s extremely pro women and to this day surprises me with how open minded she is. Another of my interview questions was about the difference between the relationship between men and women when she was my age and nowadays. She said, “It’s getting better because women have jobs but I still don’t think we’re equal to men when it comes to income.” Which is extremely similar to Naomi Wolf’s vies in her book, “Women are shown either to receive less than men, or to get nothing at all. That is still true”(49).

            Another question I asked was on the subject of beauty. “What do you think true beauty is?” I asked, to which she responded, “that’s for everyone to decide for themselves.” This quote kind of blew my mind and I have a feeling that Naomi Wolf would agree with Asma because in her book she says, “Why that one?” referring to the vague nature of beauty. She also discusses how the ‘perfect face’ is only ‘the perfect face’ because millions of women are looking at it and the marketing industry itself is calling it ‘the perfect face’ (71).

            Lastly, I asked her about how she was treated in Lebanon as a politically active woman, showing up to the male dominated protests of the time. She responded by talking about how she wasn’t accepted and sometimes even abused just for showing up. Attractive women weren’t supposed to try and be on the same level as men, which echoes the double standard that Naomi wolf talks about in The Beauty Myth when she says, “Women are allowed a mind or a body, but not both” (59).

            I got lucky that I even knew Asma, she was the perfect person to interview on this subject. She has never bought into the beauty myth, and she didn’t need a book to tell her what was wrong with it, all she needed was her life experience. If you ask me that shows me just how false the beauty myth is and how much awareness needs to be spread.

Women Holding Women Back

            We were first introduced to the concept of women holding women back in The Handmaid’s Tale when we were introduced to the Aunts that taught the Handmaids how they should act as well as what their lives will become.

            Women, just like men are connected to one another, whether it be through common goals, the formation of communities, protest, or even something as minor as group trips to the bathroom, but Naomi Wolf thinks that the public behavior of women is one of the factors that is holding them down.

            Granted, Naomi Wolf mostly talks about how men and industries are keeping women down but she also discusses how women are doing it to themselves. She says that, “beauty thinking urges women to approach each other as possible adversaries until they know they are friends” which to me seems like a completely unhealthy outlook on one another (75).

            You can see the downside of such views in communities just like ASL. The girls that attend school here are a lot more clique oriented then the boys are. I’m a guy, and I can safely say that it is very rare to find another guy that attends this school that I would find it awkward to talk to, get along with, or even work with. However I can’t say the same for the girls. A female friend was complaining to me about her work partner for a certain class, when I asked what was wrong with her partner she said, ”nothing, I just don’t know her at all”. I told her she should just get to know her and she just told me that I “didn’t understand”.

            This negative effect of the beauty myth is one of the most common that I come into contact with as I do it on a daily basis, but Wolf claims that there’s a simple solution. “Though women have networks of intimate friends, the myth, and women’s conditions until recently, have kept women from learning how to do something that makes all male social change possible: How to identify with unknown other women in a way that ins not personal.” (75)

            If you ask me that’s the best solution, but the only way we can reach that is to get rid of the beauty myth and I honestly have no idea how we would go about doing that, which is why I’m really looking forward to the last chapter of our book.

The Beauty Myth in Movies

Last week, my mother has gotten really into the legally blonde movies. She asked me to watch with her for a while so I obliged. I was tired and lying down on the couch with the movie droning on in the background. I was about to sneak a quick nap in, but the movie seemed to jump out at me. The beauty myth jumped out of the screen and slapped me in the face.

Elle Woods, the main character of the movie is a ditzy blonde stereotype trying to be a lawyer. Granted this movie is all about overcoming stereotypes about being attractive. Men and women persecute her alike for being ‘too pretty to be a lawyer’, and she eventually overcomes this barrier (the whole plot of the movie).

This is all fine and dandy, but there were some sexist undertones in the movie. For example, at the end of the film, she breaks up her boyfriend and shows that she’s independent, but then she ruins it by saying, “I've been waiting for a long time for you to say that. But if I'm going to be a partner in a law firm by the time I'm 30, I need a boyfriend who's not such a complete bonehead.” She literally states that she needs a man in her life if she’s going to achieve her goals.

            This is bad enough in itself but throughout the entire movie all the characters are fixated on beauty. If they’re jealous, they’re jealous because they’re not as pretty as her. Elle says things like, “Curls weren’t a good look for her. She didn’t have your bone structure.” And  “Oh, I like your outfit too, except when I dress up as a frigid bitch, I try not to look so constipated. “

            People are called  ‘shallow’ for judging her for being too pretty, but she’s justified when she insults people for being less attractive then her. Another thing I noticed is that nobody in the movie is remotely offended by this system and my mom wasn’t aware of these undertones in the movie until I told her about them. She says things like “I object!” when a man whistles at her, and she does it as a joke. There’s no inclination towards change.

            This movie and others like it show that it isn’t just the advertising that supports the beauty myth, but movies too.

Vanity

I noticed something the other day while I was on the bus. People continuously look at themselves. At night, when you can see your reflection in the glass, it’s nearly impossible to not look at yourself. It’s human nature. Everyone looks once in a while and they always do a certain pose or facial expression that they use when they look at themselves, and it’s quite funny to see.

The point that I’m trying to get at here is that everyone is more obsessed with the way they look then they would care to admit. It’s pretty embarrassing to be caught checking yourself out. People are vain in every way that you can imagine, whether it’s the way they look, personal achievements, or just the way they live their life. In The Beauty Myth, Wolf discusses “the area of appearance that seems to be one where women feel they can most easily exert some control over how they will be responded to.” (43) Somebody might be judged for taking too much pride in their appearance, but it’s true that people will judge you based on appearance. Anything from what you’re wearing to the color of your skin, it changes the way people perceive you.

“To tell a woman she is ugly can make her feel ugly, act ugly, and as far as her experience is concerned, be ugly.” (36) This quote from The Beauty Myth what a huge affect other people’s opinions can have on a person, and the way somebody looks is a huge factor in what people think of them. If you tell someone something negative about them, they’re probably gonna end up thinking about how they can fix that part of themselves for hours, if not days. So when the marketing industry not only implies that there’s something wrong with women if they don’t look like the women in their ads but also offers them a solution then they’ll get customers. I’m not saying anything is wrong with taking care of your appearance, I’m just saying it’s not right to judge people based on it.

So how can we fix this? How can we stop people from judging others based on appearance? I’m never 100% certain about anything I suggest for the entirety of the world but if I had to suggest one thing, I would try and eliminate stereotypes. Stereotypes of all kinds are what us judge without knowing one another and I really think that if stereotypes became a thing of the past, then people would stop worrying so much about how people view them. 

Asma

            Asmahan Tsoi is a family friend. We just call her Asma. She’s lived all around the world and really is like a grandmother to me. She was born in Iraq and is currently living in London. A lot of the questions that I asked her related to her childhood and the issues currently present in the Middle East regarding gender roles, stereotypes, and politics in general.  She’s led a very interesting, independent, and worthwhile life so far. Her childhood in Iraq was a very happy one, as she was born into a wealthy Iraqi family,

“We were a very wealthy family and although there were plenty of businesswomen that had careers in nearly every field, she was a housewife. Most women of considerable wealth were at the time.”

            I asked her why the wealthy women were mostly housewives and she went on to describe the diversity in Iraq, “there were jews, christians, muslims, and anything else you could imagine. It’s just that the muslims held most of the wealth, we were there first.”

            Asma was a happy child and her childhood was quite normal in her memory, but what really changed her life was when her family insisted that she get married. Of course, she did what they asked not being sure what else she could do.

            She was married at a very young age, but soon ran away to Lebanon where she was able to find secretary work. This was where she met my mom. My mom was trying to rent an apartment in Lebanon, but no one would let her rent an apartment without a man living in the apartment. After a couple months of couch surfing my mom finally found Asma. She was the only person in Lebanon that would rent a flat to a single woman in her twenties.

            Asma met a young businessman while there, and that’s where she gets her last name. They’re still married and have 3 kids, 2 of which have kids of their own. Not only this, but Asma was able to break free from the constraints that Islam put on women and she converted to Catholicism. She’s not only one of the bravest people I know, but one of the kindest. To me, she was an independent woman before people even knew what it meant.

           

Killing Us Softly Part 2

            One of the strangest aspects about the issues brought up in Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly 4 is one of awareness. After all, se says “that things aren’t getting better and that they’re getting worse”. This is her fourth movie on the subject and she claims that she still needs to educate the world on the dangers of the beauty myth in advertising.

            What surprises me about this is that nothing about the advertising industry is a secret. Men and women alike know that the Photoshop is used widespread across the world for digital imaging, but people still try and attain the impossible standard of beauty that they see in advertisements. Is it our fault that the beauty myth is still around? I don’t think we should blame ourselves. I think that certain advertisements, standards, and images have been implanted into our minds from a young age and we’ve just become more and more accustomed to them. We would all consider ourselves ‘used to’ the sexual imagery presented to us daily, but if the ads shown to us were taken to another country, for example Saudia Arabia or Iran, we’d get a completely different reaction. They’re used to women covering themselves to show humility and we’re used to almost the exact opposite. So what is it that makes this beauty myth seem so permanent?

            In my humble opinion, it’s the youth being exposed to this kind of imagery that makes it seem like it’s a permanent fixture in our culture. It’s those that don’t take in advertisements within the right context. A lack of education is what makes these ads so dangerous. If one truly thinks that a model is what every woman should aspire to look like but isn’t educated about the use of photoshop, or genetic differences in body type, then they will become self-conscious about the way that they look.

            There’s no other way to put it. Since we can’t exactly change the way people market their products, we have to change the way that we view them, and not just from an adult point of view, but also from as young as we can start educating ourselves about it. Jean Kilbourne describes this type of education as “Media Literacy” in her presentation and she even says that they’ve got a few classes running, but what we need is more than a few classes, we need to make it common knowledge.

Killing Us Softly

            Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly 4 demonstrates, through advertisements, the unhealthy aspects of our culture. She discusses Weight, health, dietary choices, brands, and advertising’s affects on both men and women, and why we need to change what’s being shown to our not only us, but our children as well.

            Personally, I was shocked by some of the content that was being presented and discussed, granted not by some of the newer content (since I’ve been exposed to similar things my whole life), but I was shocked when I was presented with ads like the ‘innocence is sexier than you think’ campaign as well as the use of Photoshop. It truly frightened me to see that they were able to use the body parts of different women to create the face and body of an entirely new woman. It’s no wonder our image of beauty has been distorted overtime. We’ve been exposed to what Kilbourne calls “the same rare body type which has become the norm in advertising”.

            Another thing that stood out to me was the sexualization and taboo nature of food in advertising. We shouldn’t couple digitally enhanced models with a radically different and unhealthy view of food. It leads to a widespread lack of self-confidence, eating disorders, and worst of all depression. These aren’t the messages we should be broadcasting. The compulsive pursuit of an impossible standard of beauty amongst women is a direct result of exactly this kind of marketing.

            After watching this presentation I can actually say that I’ve now more fully understood what we’ve been discussing as well as reading in class. The Beauty Myth tells us the media’s affects on us but Kilbourne shows us. The disturbing yet truthful imagery she shows us is the only way that, as she puts it, we can “increase awareness and lead to global changes”, and I for one completely agree with her.

            The objectification and infantilization of women may not be the direct cause of violence, but it definitely doesn’t help. Not only this, but all these negative sides of marketing industry are only there for one thing, profit. Are we really so blind as a culture that we can’t demand reform or regulation? There is definitely a way, and it is definitely the time, yet even with all the activist groups out there battling against this we still aren’t seeing any change, and to me that’s just wrong.

            

References to Literature in The Handmaid's Tale

“The pen between my fingers is sensuous, alive almost, I can feel its power, the power of the words it contains. Pen Is Envy, Aunt Lydia would say, quoting another Center motto, warning us away from such objects. And they were right, it is envy. Just holding it is envy. I envy the Commander his pen. It's one more thing I would like to steal.” (183)

            Writing, literature, and storytelling are constantly referenced throughout The Handmaid’s Tale. All these things are in fact forbidden to Offred ever since she became a handmaid. The forbidden nature of these things gives them a new light in her eyes and a new type of excitement. This is extremely evident when the commander invites her to play a game of scrabble for the first time.

“To be asked to play Scrabble, instead, as if we were an old married couple, or two children, seemed kinky in the extreme, a violation in its own way. As a request it was opaque.”

She addresses how mundane this would have been in a world before she was banned from writing. However, the act of telling stories is not always a positive one.  She considers the life that she’s currently living to be a giant story. This means that despite the allure of telling stories, there are still some that she would rather not tell, those of her own life. “I am trying not to tell stories, or at any rate not this one.” (60). Does this mean that she despises her own life? Is she telling her story not because she wants to but because she believes that she has to? There is so much depth to the writing references in the book that she makes us question the story being told to us. “When I get out of here, if I’m ever able to set this down, in any form, even in the form of one voice to another, it will be a reconstruction then too, at yet another remove. It’s impossible to say a thing exactly the way it was, because what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out.” (144)

Storytelling, writing, and literature are all reoccurring themes in the Handmaid’s tale, and give us another perspective to look at the book through.

Is it the End of Men?

Hana Rosin’s argument in her controversial article The End of Men starts out steadily enough, with somewhat even argument, stating viewpoints from both sides. Soon after that however, the arguments that she uses in her article take a turn for the worse. “A role reversal is under way” she says, that masculinity was the most prominent characteristic at one point in our history. She claims that “women work better than men, live longer, and learn better” than men. It’s easy to see how these generalizations have been put on women through statistical analysis of the population, but I don’t see how it’s related to a change in the views that western culture has on the relationship between men and women. Lastly, as opposed to a reversal of roles I truly believe that there’s a balancing in roles. My experiences in ASL have truly taught me about the inevitable equality between both genders. There isn’t so much a complete reversal as there is a shift towards balance that I see on a daily basis. In addition to this, her statements about how masculinity was viewed as one of the most common attributes of leaders and powerful people in history severely downplay the role of women in history. I showed my mother, who was raised in a convent, these two articles and she had one thing to say about both of them. She said, “If women could’ve become more dominant than men, they would’ve a long time ago.” Although it sounds somewhat sexist now that I type it out, what my mother actually meant was that no one of either gender truly wants to take the place of the other. It’s simply ridiculous to believe that women could play every role in society because of the innate genetic differences in our makeup. I believe that Hana Rosin’s focus on the differences in gender is a one stuck in the past. It’s the similarities between the two genders that have really allowed for social progress to be made, as we become a more balanced and equal society. The emphasis that she puts on western civilization is also inaccurate, my family lives all over the world and from first hand experience I can safely say that the role of women in modern times was brought forth by equal desire from both sexes for true equality.

Brainwashing in The Handmaid's Tale

            The Republic of Gilead is one filled with people in transition. Its citizens have been taken out of their relatively free lives and put into the republic of Gilead thanks to some disaster.

            As a direct result, these people experience a sort of sorrow that comes as a result of losing the lives that they once cherished. It is widely believed by the government and it’s officials, such as Aunt Lydia, that while the current population wishes for it’s old life back, the next generation will not know any different and be completely complacent throughout their lives.

            Brainwashing comes in many forms throughout the book and doesn’t seem to truly work on Offred. This soon changes as we go further and further into the novel. She first witnesses a loss of free will as she sees Moira in ‘the club’. Moira, a girl who once escaped the government’s captivity is now perfectly satisfied with the life she lives. “So here I am. They even give you face cream.” (261) She says to Offred, who is shocked by her acceptance of her new life.

Brainwashing takes place in many forms and it can be done indirectly. Offred’s free will is stripped away piece by piece. She simply doesn’t wish to have it anymore. The circumstances of her life only provide pain when confronted with the mindset that she held before the formation of The Republic of Gilead. After sleeping with Nick, she even says, “I would like to be without shame. I would like to be shameless. I would like to be ignorant. Then I would not know how ignorant I was.” (275) In this quote, she almost wishes that the she hadn’t resisted Gilead’s indoctrination.

            As she slowly gives in to the ever-present societal pressure, she begins to say things that shock even her, “Things are back to normal.” Without pause, she immediately says, “How can I call this normal?” (294) She goes on to describe how everything is relative and how this has essentially become normal for her.

            Time is a key part of the conditioning Gilead’s been applying to the people under it’s rule, and with the loss of any resistance on both Offred and Moira’s part as well as others who share their views, it’s finally working.

            

Religion in the Handmaid's Tale

            Religion is the foundation of Gilead’s formation. It is a republic based on religious dogma from the Old Testament skewed cover up the real wishes of the Gilead elite.

            Their use of Christianity is only a means to an end. There’s never any mention of people willingly praying, going to church, or even using the accepted greetings of their own accord. They do these things out of fear, fear that they will be thrown out of civilization or worse, tortured and killed.

            The Christianity that we know is extremely different to the one that we are currently familiar with. In Gilead it’s normal for a married man to sleep with others besides his wife. It’s normal to treat the different genders differently and to prohibit anything deemed ‘sinful’.

            My family from my mother’s side is Catholic and if I were to illustrate the morals shown in the Handmaid’s Tale they would be disgusted. Not only that, but they would claim that the religion being followed isn’t a Christian one.

            I believe anything can be interpreted in many ways, and when you pick and choose from the bible, you could end up with anything you want. The very first part of the book illustrates three quotes, one of them justifying the use of handmaids. “and she said, behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.” (Genesis) Does a simple quote from the bible make something acceptable? In The Republic of Gilead it does.

            During the women’s prayvaganza, we see the worst of this come to life. They’re using the old testament of the bible to justify inequality between the two sexes. “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.” (233) This quote tells us that woman should be in constant subjection to men. Later on we hear him say, “Notwithstanding she shall be saved by childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.” This basically tells women that their only use in life and method to salvation is childbirth.

            If these ideas of inequality and injustice were brought to the modern times we would all be disgusted by them and reject them immediately, but through gradual change, indoctrination, and force, the Republic of Gilead was able to make this a reality.

The Use of Language in The Handmaid's Tale.

In the handmaid's Tale, we see the use of language being corrupted by the Republic of Gilead. The english language has been changed and warped to suit the new society and the needs of it's elite. Now that women are no longer legally allowed to hold jobs, Gilead's system of titles that are given to men are the only way of determining any individuality. All individuality has been taken away from the women of the society as they are defined as wives, handmaids, or marthas and have their real names taken away from them. Feminists and deformed babies are deemed subhuman, known in Gilead as "unwomen" and "unbabies". Others such as blacks and jew are known through biblical terms ("Children of Ham", "Sons of Jacob). These names set them apart from the rest of society. These names are given to people in order to make their persecution a much simpler process, people are called 'unwomen' and are sent away just as those called 'rapists' or 'murderers'.
People no longer greet each other in the same way either, terms like "hello" and "goodbye" have all but been obliterated from the language and have been replaced with phrases like "praise be" and "under his eye". These new words are used to root out the disloyal from the mass population, as not using them is a sign of betrayal.
Gilead is host to a whole new set of rituals that we have never seen before, given new terms in an attempt to dissociate the rituals from what they truly are. "prayvaganzas" are necessary and a way of promoting propaganda as well as marrying arranged couples en masse. "Salvaging" is the new word for a public addressing and executing of criminals. Worst of all perhaps are "particicutions", the group slaughter of a single individual. It's a new type of ritual, one we would never see right now.
The perversion of language through the supression of freedom, literature, and certain subjects is extremely reminiscent of "newspeak" in George Orwell's 1984 which is an extreme version of this.
Together, the language changes in Gilead that we are witness to all serve the purpose of serving the will wills of the Commander's and their interpretation of the religion they follow. It's a form of policing the population, removing individuality, and cover up real meanings.